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Wednesday, September 02, 2015

I'm obsessing over a new project. It's called The Inspiration Conspiracy and it's a mentoring program where larger, more established YouTube channels help smaller channels by increasing their exposure and providing support. This is only for those channels who produce creative content...mostly arts and crafts related.

Exactly how does this work? Well, I've only done it once but that one time was very successful so I'm now planning to do it again. And again, and again for as long as it continues to work!

It is basically just a video hop where you watch one video then click on a link that takes you to the next one and so on until you find yourself back where you started. I like working with about 13 channels, some are hop hosts and some are hop participants.

For our first hop I had the pleasure of working with PackerDi and Mike Deakin as my co-hosts. The hop participants were all YouTube channels with fewer than 1000 subscribers:

I hand picked them because I liked their art and felt they were serious about working to grow their channels. As luck would have it, I chose well...maybe a little too well.

My original plan was to assemble this group and do a hop. Then I planned to disband the group, assemble a new one and do a hop with the new group. That plan didn't really work out since the first group got along so well and enjoyed the experience so much that they refused to disband! No problem, I just shifted gears a little bit.

I decided to leave the first group in tact and create new groups for future hops. These are private Facebook groups that you can only join if invited. The reason for that isn't exclusivity since anyone who knows me knows that I have no tolerance for that kind of thing. The reason is because the size of the group is crucial to its success. Plus, the thing that everyone in the first hop liked best was the small group atmosphere so we're preserving that.

The first group is called Inspiration Conspiracy-Genesis because they were first. Get it? The new group I have just put together is called Inspiration Conspiracy-Lazarus because I decided that the project will live on. I'm hoping that this will eventually become a "thing" where more established arts and crafts channels will jump on board to help out the new channels. From my own experience it's a win-win for everyone including the entire creative community on YouTube.

Since our first hop is over, the Genesis group is free to do their own hops or collaborations as they see fit but they will also be participating in tandem with the Lazarus group. Each group will be doing separate hops but they will be released on the same day and time with links provided so that viewers can hop from hop to hop.

That makes perfect sense in my head but since we haven't actually tested this particular theory we'll just have to wait and see if all that hopping works!

When I created the Lazarus group I added a third co-host. This time I'm working with Kelly Donovan, Patti Parrish, and Cat Hand. We have 9 smaller channels participating, all with fewer than 1000 subscribers. I can't tell you who those channels are but I can tell you when you can find out:

October 8, 2015

1:00 p.m. CDT

At that time you can start the hop on my channel or any of the other host channels. You will be treated to a variety of art and craft videos, each one no longer than 10 minutes so you can hop seamlessly in 1 viewing session. The hop is designed so that each viewer will see the hop videos in the same order no matter where they start. At the end of the hop rotation there will be a link that takes you to the other group hop so you can see all the videos in that rotation.

The order of the videos is very specific and is the key to the success of the hop. Just how successful was it? I'll tell you. I compiled this data 48 hours after the Genesis hop was released:

Average number of subscribers gained in 48 hours for all channels, hoppers & hosts: 118 per channel

Average subscriber increase for channels who started with 100 or less: 108% increase

Average subscriber increase for channels who started with 100-200: 80% increase

Average subscriber increase for channels who started with 700-900: 19% increase

Those are absolutely phenomenal results! I honestly didn't expect much for the host channels since our goal was to funnel our existing viewers to these smaller channels. I was extremely surprised to find that the hosts, myself included, had a significant increase in subscribers and views. Those of us who monetize our videos also saw a spike in our estimated earnings the day after the hop. I did not expect that either.

If you have an established YouTube channel (3000+ subscribers) and are interested in co-hosting a future Inspiration Conspiracy video hop, please contact me and let me know. As a hop host you will join a Facebook group with your co-hosts and hop participants. Participate in the group as time allows, the only requirement is that you check in at least once a week so we know you're still with us. You will make a process video no more than 10 minutes long and release it on the day of the hop. The rotation and all other little details will already be taken care of. Easy, right? I know...we should talk:

I'm a firm believer in The Golden Rule, Karma, what goes around comes around, etc. In the end, everybody wins. I know this for a fact because the more shout outs I do and the more time I spend helping smaller channels, the more my own channel grows. It's all about sharing the love!